i have also known people to buy Nike shoes in the USA and ship to China as then they know they probably got real Nike shoes.

The whole clothes thing is bizarre. Clothes in the US are much cheaper than in China and the shopping is 100 times more pleasant. Most stores in the US have more than one example and more than one size of something. And they don't follow you around trying to force-feed you. And they have a return policy. And they are cheaper.

Go to corner of Beijing Dong Lu and Xizang Lu. That's within walking distance of the People's Square subway station or otherwise, taxi it.

Head east on Beijing Lu. Little shops of machinish stuff up the wazoo. Dozens of them.

Right after Zhejiang Lu (cross street) on the left (north) side of Beijing Lu, there's three big reddish granite buildings. Go into the middle one, five or six floors of electronic goodies. Or baddies, depending on your point of view. No idea how much of it is fakes but I have my doubts. Total chaos inside, good luck finding anything. Or your way out, it's a maze

Continue a little farther to Fujian Lu, turn right (south). More stuff but slightly different emphasis, more plastics and valves and piping kinda things here. In a few blocks you end up in the Nanjing Lu pedestrian street, snack time. Turn right and keep going down the middle (west) and you'll find your way back to the subway station, the Catholic church, and Raffles shopping center which has an okay pizza place on the third floor.

Go to corner of Beijing Dong Lu and Xizang Lu. That's within walking distance of the People's Square subway station or otherwise, taxi it.

Head east on Beijing Lu. Little shops of machinish stuff up the wazoo. Dozens of them.

Right after Zhejiang Lu (cross street) on the left (north) side of Beijing Lu, there's three big reddish granite buildings. Go into the middle one, five or six floors of electronic goodies. Or baddies, depending on your point of view. No idea how much of it is fakes but I have my doubts. Total chaos inside, good luck finding anything. Or your way out, it's a maze

Continue a little farther to Fujian Lu, turn right (south). More stuff but slightly different emphasis, more plastics and valves and piping kinda things here. In a few blocks you end up in the Nanjing Lu pedestrian street, snack time. Turn right and keep going down the middle (west) and you'll find your way back to the subway station, the Catholic church, and Raffles shopping center which has an okay pizza place on the third floor.

.
ask for business card and put on it in english what you want to call it. in future show to taxi driver. also get card for hotel. same thing you show to taxi driver to go back to hotel.
.
i always had a type of business card wallet. get close to anyplace in a city by showing proper business card to taxi driver
.
i believe is
knee yoe ma ming pee N
or
knee yoe ma ming pee
.
something like that "do you have business card?". ask translator how to say. some words can be said slightly different as depending where you came from. sort of like a US southern accent. China has many regional dialects. try to learn pu tong wa or national dialect

I think what I needed is a large tool super store but I couldn't find one.

Yes, little stores of all kinds have been decimated. The only one I can think of like you are looking for is on Beijing Lu, corner of Zhejiang, across the street from the big red marble electronics place. On the corner, has a rounded lobby with a lot of glass. That's closer to what you are asking for but probably not what you want.

There's a street in Kunshan with a fair amount of stuff, maybe better chance than Shanghai now, about a fifteen minute train ride. I think Chaoyang Lu, about halfway to the town away from the train station. Right near the long-distance bus station ... there's a decent water town nearby without too many tourists but in winter maybe not so fun. Zhouzhuang, I think.

Search craigslist personals and find a girl to take you there, there's lots

Hi
I am in Shanghai and I have wandered down Beijing Road. There are heaps of little shops mostly selling parts and materials. Very little in the way of tooling.

I think what I needed is a large tool super store but I couldn't find one.
Does anyone know where they are??? Ideally I need a nearby street intersection.

Dazz

.
.
get translator to ask taxi driver to take you to big tool store. sometimes takes 2 or 3 tax drivers as sometimes new driver not familiar with city. worked for me in many different cities
.
last time i was there tool stores went on for over a mile and easily over 50 stores. but bigger stores combining forcing little stores out of business is natural. some bigger stores are really many individual stores renting space in big building.
.
Shanghai has massive industrial base or rather its has many manufacturers. but because many have no car they favor areas with many stores you can walk from one to another. i have often heard foreigners says there are no tool stores. yes maybe no stores by hotel but they are there you just need help to find them. in my experience once you are in the right area you will find 10 to 100 times more tool stores than in other countries. you just need to find the areas.

You would probably be surprised at how Shanghai has changed over the past few years

.
all cites change with Chinese cities changing faster than many USA cities. i always just asked taxi drivers. like i said might take 2 or 3 drivers as new driver might not know city well. easier to have translator and shiyong wujin shouce (standard hardware handbook)
.
by having a picture book you can point to picture when asking for stuff. translator might have no ideal what a micrometer is, so have no ideal of its chinese name. but they can read description of picture in book.
.
many times i would go to book store 1st. 6 story tall book store in Shanghai. its i forget 4th or 5th floor in engineering section the tool picture books. usually like $5. i have been in many book stores in many Chinese cities. but they might be getting smaller with online Amazon type Chinese sites books maybe bought online more and more every year
.
then take taxi rides to tool store areas. Shangahi is different on each side of the river. usually tool store or hardware store areas are many stores next to another as it popular with people with no car. most cites have more than one tool hardware street store areas
.
many many cites have tool and hardware store areas. but many stores many items (less common items) you order and pick up later. bigger stores stuff in drawers or shelves and more like warehouse. not every store you can look at stuff but you have to ask them to bring to you to look at. smaller stores often stuff more out in the open to look at.
.
with impatient wife acting as translator i always found tool store areas as fast as possible. most woman are bored and have no interest in buying tools. often had to go to clothing stores after as a compromise and buy some clothes. clothing stores the cheaper clothes are in types of public markets where many small vendors are side by side. the cheaper clothing store markets can have over 200 vendors and can take 4 to 8 hours to try to see most of it. these areas are different than the shopping mall areas for the tourists and richer people. cheaper clothing areas can have 5000 to 10000 people there every day.
.
again taxi drivers are best way. large shopping areas can have thousands of people going there every day. usually experienced taxi drivers have taken many people to these areas
.
telephone book just about useless as most stores list selling everything but might actually have very little in the store. phone book i never had much luck with.
.
i was in a big store like a home depot that sold a lot of German stuff. that big Chinese store was the rare store to ask i take no pictures. other than signs in Chinese you think you were in lowes or home depot. it had more German and Japanese stuff than American store but was still similiar
.
picture of store in Ningbo you drove your truck into to get larger stuff like plywood, doors, etc. it again was many vendors sharing same store like a public market. even when stores moves its only a matter of where did government move it too. larger areas have thousands of customers everyday
.
city of over 20 million can have over 1 million active in manufacturing. there are stores selling supplies. just a matter of where did the government move them too. Shanghai is big like a whole county in USA. they call it a city more like a Tri state area around new york city, including new jersey and other States. stores can be far away and still in the city in China

Yes, little stores of all kinds have been decimated. The only one I can think of like you are looking for is on Beijing Lu, corner of Zhejiang, across the street from the big red marble electronics place. On the corner, has a rounded lobby with a lot of glass. That's closer to what you are asking for but probably not what you want.

There's a street in Kunshan with a fair amount of stuff, maybe better chance than Shanghai now, about a fifteen minute train ride. I think Chaoyang Lu, about halfway to the town away from the train station. Right near the long-distance bus station ... there's a decent water town nearby without too many tourists but in winter maybe not so fun. Zhouzhuang, I think.

Search craigslist personals and find a girl to take you there, there's lots

Hi
I found the Hardware place at Zhejiang/Beijing but it was closed. The Marble Electronics place was open so I had a look around there.

Relying on Taxi drivers without the benefit of a translator isn't a practical option for me. I have found that half the taxi drivers have problems finding my hotel without detailed instructions. Anything Google, including maps, is blocked here so navigation is a major issue.

The underground is very good, dead easy to use and very cheap so getting around isn't a problem. Knowing where to go and how to get there after leaving the station is the problem.

I suspect that the tool stores I am looking for are now located near manufacturing hot spots, but finding those districts and then finding the stores in a city with 25million people is beyond the time limits I have.

I suspect that the tool stores I am looking for are now located near manufacturing hot spots, but finding those districts and then finding the stores in a city with 25million people is beyond the time limits I have.

I think I will be going home empty handed.

I am not sure you are going to find anything in central Shanghai and we don't have any manufacturing hot spots these days ... I bet Minhang has something but no idea where. You might try up by the Baoshan station on line 3, head directly east past kfc and all the computer crap and there's a side street to the north with some used machinery and *maybe* a bit of tooling. But no guarantees. Some of the side streets up there directly across from the parking lot have little shops but they are pretty grungy.

More better, if you have a day for adventure, go to Kunshan and hit Chaoyang lu. It's the middle couple of blocks. At least you can get some machine skates with urethane wheels to bring back, pretty neat for lighter stuff like a Bridgeport. And you should find more stuff than that. Maybe a lifting magnet, that ought to freak out the airline Kunshan, Minhang, Anting, those are the places where factories are located nowadays. Jiading has a pretty little downtown, too. Too bad it's new year's weekend Kunshan is famous for hairy crabs, too but I don't think this is the season. It's only maybe 15 minutes by train, take the #2 all the way to Hongqiao station and you can go from there easily. They were talking about making the subway go all the way, that would be easy but slower. Ask at your hotel ?

I was kinda serious about craigslist. Many of the night girls would be happy to be tour guides. It's less stressful than their normal work You can always ask, they don't bite.

If I din't have obligations I'd drag you around but 50 miles away at the moment ...

you really need a translator. i cannot imagine finding much of anything just wandering around a big city. many girls at bars and dance discos are like in other countries just looking to meet people they wouldnt meet on the farm. like girls wanting to meet doctors, lawyers, bosses, accountants, etc. you might find some who are surprisingly well educated and often are smarter than you might think. and they might have traveled to more countries than you have. many end up married in other countries so they tend to want to learn other languages. expats or foreign workers (consulting experts) are often making over $100,000/yr and company often pays all expenses. they often retire early with easily over a $1,000,000 in savings
.
1) taxi drivers are your best resource. yes some still learning city. you have to remember the hardware tool store areas usually have 1000's of customers arriving everyday. often more people going to tool stores (usually many similar stores near one another) than to a particular hotel. with no translator a taxi driver will take you to common tourist areas for people with money. taxi driver not going to take you to public clothes market with over 10,000 customers everyday that regular poorer people go too.
.
2) a foreigner (llow way) will pay top prices and you will have trouble asking to see much of anything. dont expect all tools to be cheap. a digital caliper in USA for $15. is pretty much the same price in China. some tools like precision levels not commonly sold in other countries can be cheap in China like $20 to $40 and same level in USA going for $80 to $300.
.
3) dont under estimate needing a picture book of tools. i once was looking for air gun for blowing away chips and i could not get translator to make store clerk understand what i wanted. much easier with book point to picture of tool and Chinese right under it with Chinese description. i first learned of Shiyong Wujin Shouce from a Chinese hardware store as clerk got one out and tried to explain its like a universal catalog and most tools in the book are available. might have to order tool and come back in a few days. sometimes stuff ordered far away and its put on a bus with people's luggage and somebody from store picks up at bus station. i suspects its done cheaper than regular shipping and bus driver probably keeps money not telling boss. not all tools common in China. i once was looking for solvent parts cleaner and it was hard to find as many just use plastic bowl with some mineral spirits or kerosene rather than buy a machine. i had trouble finding dremel vibrating type engraver until i realized a little mini grinder is what common for engraving instead. just saying some countries its more common to do things with different tools.

Hi
I am here with my wife to see a key electronics supplier and to see some of the tourist sites. Buying tools is very much desirable, not essential. When it comes to buying tools, my wife's patience is measured in micro-seconds.

We went with a guide/translator today to see one of the water villages. She has a Masters Degree in Tourism from a Spanish University. She is fluent in Mandarin, English and Spanish. No shortage of smart people here.

One of the items I would like is a 12mm mill clamping set. There only seems to be one factory making these on-line. The cost of shipping is about 3x the purchase price. Worth while buying but I saw nothing like this on Beijing Road.

I have one day left tomorrow and given the choice between wandering down the Bund with my Wife or trying to find a tool shop somewhere, there is a clear winner. I appreciate all the advice received but on such a short visit I really need a an exact location to go to. There are probably dozens of tool shops here that stock all the items on my shopping list but right now, I don't know the location of any one of them.

I have one day left tomorrow and given the choice between wandering down the Bund with my Wife or trying to find a tool shop somewhere, there is a clear winner.

You coulda mentioned that in the beginning, ya know

You may find that tool shopping is more exciting than wai tan At least go over to the lujiazui side, there's some stuff to do over there, the Bund is the ultimate in boring. Even Taco Bell gave up and moved out. On the Poo Dung side you can go up Pearl Tower, the aquarium is okay, on Puxi side the Nanjing Lu pedestrian street is a tourist trap but kind of a kick, Shanghai people will want you to go down Nanjing Lu to the east to see the glamorous watch stores, LV, Cartier, and all that crap. A little farther east is some new stuff in Jing'an that's pretty good, plus the temple, the shopping is more interesting and less snooty. Raffles, across the street from People's Square, just so-so. For girl-type shopping, the three big buildings right by Jing'An temple are maybe the best. French concession is maybe the most picturesque.

There are probably dozens of tool shops here that stock all the items on my shopping list but right now, I don't know the location of any one of them.

I could be wrong but I don't think so. Taobao online shopping has decimated a lot of little places and what Taobao didn't kill, the city did. I don't even look anymore, just go online. Rents have gone sky-high and factories have all been moved outside the city proper. If I were shopping for the things you [didn't] describe, I would start in the south, Shenzhen maybe, or Nanjing or actually up in the northeast where tons of tooling is made. Dongbei is much more likely to find your tool desires (which you didn't mention yet so I could be way off.) In China, things tend to clump. Plastics in the south, big lathes in Wuhan or Qiqihaer, grinders here, cmm's there. You need to match what you want to where it's made. And little of it is made in Shanghai now. Too expensive. Ningbo woulda been a good try, but no time. Or Wenzhou maybe. But not downtown Skank

I really need a an exact location to go to. There are probably dozens of tool shops here that stock all the items on my shopping list but right now, I don't know the location of any one of them.

What SeaMoss said.

The only tools commonly available in ANY Chinese city areas you can actually GET to easily, are are those needed in their Day Jobs by plumbers, masons, carpenters, furniture fitters and kitchen remodelers.

Even that is largely because 80 to 90 percent of those tools are expendable or consumable, nowhere near long-term durable.

I trust to US-based importers with Chinese owners/staff. H&H Industrial, CDCO, etc.
They know their suppliers. They know which tools to position and price as throwaways, and which ones are better grade, and they know it far more accurately than I have time - or interest - in learning.

My normal procedure when buying stuff in foreign cities is to mail order the items to my hotel. This requires a lot of research and planning which I was unable to do before I went to Shanghai so I ended up empty handed. A walk down Beijing St was interesting but fruitless. Trying to buy stuff on the weekend of a public holiday didn't help. No more than half the shops were open when I was there. Those that were open had a small range of tools.

Shanghai was better than I expected but I am now in London so Shanghai is a pleasant memory now.

Posting Permissions

ADVERTISEMENTS

ABOUT Practical Machinist

With more than 10.6 million unique visitors over the last year, Practical Machinist is the most visited site for metalworking professionals. Practical Machinist is the easiest way to learn new techniques, get answers quickly and discuss common challenges with your peers. Register for the world’s largest manufacturing technology forum for free today to stay in the know.